


John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

by iZombi



Series: Wartime with Sabaton [7]
Category: Sabaton (Band)
Genre: Apologies, Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Joakim takes care of his new brothers, Light Angst, M/M, TAGGED AS MATURE FOR PANIC ATTACKS, he’s a good man and, in arms despite of how they all first met, so he helps them, understands the pain of suffering alone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:20:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29812485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iZombi/pseuds/iZombi
Summary: A month after Joakim’s fateful meeting with the four new immortals, he slowly finds out that he’s not the only one with triggers that give him panic attacks. So, he helps Tommy and Chris when their triggers are accidentally brought on and assists to keep them calm enough to prevent having a panic attack. Later, when Tommy and Chris are alone, they confess to one another that they feel bad for how they behaved towards Joakim in their first meeting, and decide that it would be best to apologize for their behavior…
Relationships: Joakim Brodén / Chris Rörland, Joakim Brodén / Tommy Johannson
Series: Wartime with Sabaton [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2111514
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CamdenNightingale](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CamdenNightingale/gifts).



>   
> \- - - -  
> This fic is something that me and my dearest friend @CamdenNightingale where talking about as a part of an AU she is working on with the Sabaton Boys being Immortals, (think the TV show "The Old Guard") !  
> \- - - -  
> I hope you all enjoy reading it!  
> \- - - -

**[This story will be split into three parts, part one, this one, is when the guys have found Joakim in the middle eastern desert and have gotten to know him somewhat after everything that went down. Pär booked a flight back to the US for them to take to get back home, in which something unexpected happens mid-flight…]**

… Joakim sat down next to Chris, both men taking their seat in the plane that would take them out of the middle east and into the United States, he could tell that Chris seemed somewhat nervous about _something_ … he wasn’t sure what but he kept a silent eye on him,

The flight was very uneventful and overall enjoyable… that was at least until the pilot announced on the overhead speakers that there would be some light turbulence,

“ _Fuck…!”_ Chris cursed under his breath and Joakim could see his breathing start to pick up, his eyes widened as he knew what this meant,

Chris would be suffering a panic attack if he didn’t calm down,

Joakim grabbed Chris’ hand and held it tightly, he gave him a very warm smile just in time as the cabin shook violently for about five solid minutes,

Where it not for Joakim holding his hand, Chris would’ve very likely screamed in fear, instead he hid his face with his other hand as he cried softly,

Pär heard Chris cry softly as he sat directly behind the duo and he wished he could do something as he sat with Hannes and Tommy on either of his sides, instead he bit his lip and listened carefully to the two,

Another violent shake occurred but it was followed in quick succession by six other shakes, each one was tiny and lasted less than a minute with a thirty-second interval between each, but It didn’t matter as it all spooked Chris horribly,

Chris bit down on his lip to muffle a cry as Joakim held his hand tightly and rubbed his back lovingly,

“ _It’s ok… it's ok… you’re so strong Chris, you can pull through this… focus on my voice ok? You’re safe, nothing bad is going to happen… ok?”_ Pär could hear Joakim whispering words of comfort to Chris,

And he was pleasantly surprised to be hearing such words coming from him, as he half expected him to act bitter towards Chris,

I guess he thought wrong of his newest member,

A stewardess approached the duo, concern laced her delicate features, “Is everything alright sir?” she asks to Joakim,

Joakim nods, “Yeah, he’s just scared of the turbulence is all- I… hey would it be alright if he could get a bottle of water? Please?” he asks her

“Certainly, sir… I’ll be right back…” she says with a nod as she leaves,

Joakim continues to calm Chris down until he eventually reached the point where he gets him to breathe normally and to almost stop crying,

“ _You’re so strong and I’m so proud of you, Chris… easy… focus on me ok?”_ Joakim quietly gave his reassurance to Chris who nodded and occasionally hiccupped from having cried so hard,

Eventually, the stewardess arrives once again and hands to Joakim a bottle of water and a medium-sized box of snacks, Joakim takes them both for a minute without thinking,

He looks up the moment he notices the box on his hand and calls other the stewardess, “Uh- sorry ma’am, but I didn’t ask for this-“

“-Oh! There’s no extra charge or anything! The water and snacks are free, you two take care ok?” she says with a smile before leaving as she is called somewhere else,

Joakim is left speechless but appreciates the gesture given to him and Chris by the woman,

Joakim turns his attention to Chris who has stopped crying, “Thirsty?” he offers him the bottle and he nods taking it with shaky hands,

“Slowly, drink slowly…” Joakim tells him as he watches Chris drink,

Eventually, when he has drunk his fill, Chris turns his attention to the box and just quietly eye’s it,

“Do you want to see what’s inside?” Joakim asks and Chris responds with a quiet nod,

So, Joakim carefully opens the box and in it contains a box of Pringles, beef jerky, a bistro box, a fruit, and nut bento, as well as some smaller snacks that he can’t identify,

All he and Chris know is that they all look very tasty,

“Ok, which one do you want to start with…?”Joakim asks,

Chris points to the bistro box and the two of them open it, sharing the bits of crackers, cheese, and salami cuts,

Eventually, the two of them finish four snacks together, and Joakim can already tell that Chris is much happier, he gives him a smile that the other reciprocates,

“Want to save it for later?” Joakim asks and Chris shakes his head, “…Share with them?” is all he says, it looks like Chris isn’t in the talking mood,

Joakim nods and understands, he shifts around until he can see Hannes behind him and hands him the closed box of snacks, “Share you three!” is all he says as he returns to his seat with Chris,

Chris tiredly yawns and Joakim holds his hand as he too yawns, the two of them are very sleepy and will soon fall asleep…

Hours later as the guys are now in the airport getting whatever luggage they had, Pär approaches Joakim who’s standing alone, off to the side from the group,

“Hey” is all he begins with, “Thank you back there…”

“For Chris?” Joakim asks, “Yeah, no problem… I mean, after all, he shouldn’t suffer alone in silence when someone is there to help him…” he simply states,

Pär’s eyes widen, not expecting that sort of reply, “…That’s true… Y’know… I was half expecting-“

“-That I wouldn’t help him-?”

“-Yeah-“

“-Well I did, I didn’t want him to suffer… I’ve seen it happen to-“ he stops not finishing his sentence, he sighs...

“It's ok, I get it, you don’t have to say anything else… thank you though…” Pär says, his voice gentle,

Joakim nods and says nothing else…

**[This story will be split into three parts, part two, this one, is when the guys have arrived from their flight to the US and have already gotten home, Tommy gets hungry and wants to try making something that he has never made before and accidentally burn it, causing smoke, which leads to…]**

As soon as Tommy starts to cough he can feel tears prick at his eyes and the tightening sensation around his neck,

He can’t breathe,

_He can’t breathe,_

_He can’t breathe!_

It sends him into a wave of panic, he moves away from the pan that still has the burning meal and he begins to gasp like a fish out of water, his hands at his throat, clawing at it as though an invisible rope where wrapped tightly around it,

He eventually hits a wall behind him and with tears free-flowing and an ever-encroaching wave of dizziness, Tommy feels like he’s slipping again,

Like he’s dying all over again,

He’s panicking so hard that he can’t do anything,

_Weak,_

_Worthless,_

_And dying…_

The smell of something burning makes Joakim rush to the source, outrunning everyone else behind him, when he spots Tommy on the floor having what looks to be either a seizure or a panic attack, he can’t tell which,

He moves quickly to his side and with surprising strength manages to get him on his feet and out of the kitchen,

Joakim doesn’t know if Tommy’s health is at risk or not, but all he does know is that whenever someone is injured or needs medical assistance, as he was taught in the military,

That they must be removed from any sources that could injure them and immediately care for them,

This is what he does as Hannes and Pär behind him rush to put out the burning food, of which now has a grease fire on it,

Joakim moves Tommy to the outside of the house where no smoke can reach his lungs, he places him on the dry grass and quickly examines him,

When he doesn’t see any direct signs that could point to a seizure but rather a panic attack is when he takes a huge breath of relief and begins helping Tommy,

He grabs his hand and places it flat on his chest, right where his heart and lungs are,

“Tommy? Tommy- easy… easy… relax… you’re not in danger- breathe with me ok?” he instructs him and sees Tommy slowly begin to relax,

as he counts aloud while he breathes he slowly sees Tommy’s throat unclench and the muscles relax, he guides him through the breathing exercises until Tommy is now crying on the ground but breathing normally,

“Yeah… there you go… you’re so strong, you know that?” he comforts his friend as he holds his other hand with a free hand of his own,

his thumb making circular motions on Tommy’s hand to help ease him,

Tommy hiccups and makes a pitiful whine,

“Hey, you’re ok… you’re fine… don’t cry…” Joakim lets go on the other hand that is still on his chest and reaches over to his face, gently wiping away at the tears,

Tommy closes his eyes and leans into the touch,

Joakim sighs and lays down next to Tommy with him, and allows the other to snuggle close to him,

Joakim caresses his head and runs his finger through his hair, he’s quiet and just provides him with silent comfort, to Tommy, who desperately needs it,

Together they lay there and watch the clouds that float by until Tommy’s crying eases,

When it does, Joakim caresses his back, “Want to go inside?” he asks him,

Tommy shakes his head and says nothing in return,

“Ok… we’ll wait until someone comes to get us… how about that?” Joakim suggests,

and Tommy nods, as he holds onto Joakim,

Eventually, someone does come to get them, Hannes to be exact,

“Tommy are you ok?” he asks him,

Tommy nods, he sits up from the grass with Joakim doing the same beside him,

“Just a panic attack, but he’s good now…” Joakim says as he gives Tommy one last ones-over,

Hannes nods, “Thank you Joakim…”

Joakim waves a dismissive hand, “It’s alright…”

Tommy looks to Hannes, “Is the smoke-?”

“-Gone? Yeah…” Hannes confirms, “We aired everything out and applied febreeze to make it smell nice, you don’t have to worry about the smoke anymore…”

Tommy hesitates but Hannes takes his hand and helps him stand, “I promise…” he says gently,

Joakim takes Tommy’s hand and guides him towards their shared home, with Hannes following closely behind them…

**[This story will be split into three parts, part three, this one, takes place several hours later after Joakim has helped Tommy and Chris from their panic attacks, in which both boys are talking with each other over what happened…]**

Chris and Tommy both were currently both sat down on Tommy’s bed, the two gentlemen were going over the day’s events,

“-And he helped you with your panic attack?” Tommy asked, in disbelief at what his friend was telling him,

Chris nodded, “Yeah man, he did… and-“ Chris looked away in what seemed to be shame and embarrassment, “-It really did help…”

Tommy sighed, he plopped down onto the bed with a soft thud, “Man… we really were assholes to him huh?”

“Big-time…” Chris confirmed,

Tommy bit his lip as he turned his head over to look at his hand, he remembered how Joakim lifted him up with ease from the kitchen floor and out into the garden with such ease, and how he looked after him, helped to ease him of his worries…

Tommy sat up, snapping his head and attention to Chris who jumped back in surprise at the sudden action, “We _need_ to apologize- come!” he says and before Chris can react he grabs his hand and is already dragging him out of the room,

Together they head to Joakim’s bedroom,

They find that the door is closed, so out of courtesy they knock, three loud wraps at the door,

‘ _KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!’_

Tommy and Chris can hear some shuffling behind the door before ultimately the doorknob turns, the door swings open revealing the aforementioned man behind the door,

“Yeah?” Joakim asks, not really understanding why they’re in front of his door,

“Can we come in? Please? We want to talk, to you…” Tommy gently asks,

Joakim seems to consider it briefly before finally letting them in, he steps aside to give them passage,

They step inside and Joakim closes the door behind them,

“So, what did you two want to talk about?” he asks, with growing curiosity,

“Well… _actually_ -…” Chris begins

“-We want to apologize-“

“-For how we treated you earlier-“

“-When we met I mean-“

“-We realize just how much we were acting like assholes-“

“-And just how unfair we were to you, after all, we did send you into a panic attack-“

“-And you helped us without a second thought through ours-“

“-We're sorry-“

“-Please forgive us?”

They both finish together as they look on Joakim with shameful looks on their features, they look thoroughly embarrassed by how they behaved…

Joakim remains silent for some time as he looks at them, he doesn’t say anything as he can feel his own tears prick at the corners of his eyes, he’s frowning and looks thoroughly pissed,

Which makes Tommy and Chris cringe inwardly at their behavior,

Joakim gives a small shaky sigh and wipes his eyes before finally speaking up, “It's alright… I forgive you both… I just-“ he bites his lower lip, “ _Don’t_ do that again… _please_?” he pleads with them,

They nod feverishly, understanding what has been agreed upon,

Joakim smiles, “Good… now come here you two-“ he says as he pulls them into a hug, “No hard feelings?”

“No hard feelings…” they both reply as the hug tightens,

A wave of laughter erupts from the room as the heavy air dissipates and turns into one of cheerful and joyous nature,

_It looks like Joakim has found a new family of which deeply loves and cares for him…_


End file.
